MATA Festival kicks off at LPR (runs through Thursday)

The 12th annual MATA Festival 2010, which focuses on new works by young composers, kicks off tonight (Monday, April 19th) with a free show at LPR’s Gallery Bar. Turntablist/composer Matthew Wright will be performing his MATA comissioned Totem for Gobi-New York, an “interactive audio/video installation” with guest, sax improviser Evan Parker. The rest of the concerts, which run through this Thursday, are also happening at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Many are free, including the closing event with Argento Chamber Ensemble and Italian ensemble L’Arsenale on Thursday.

Tickets to the non-free shows (like Calder Quartet‘s Tuesday show) are available through LPR. Audio samples of the festival’s new commissions are up here. The full artist schedule, more information and composer interviews are posted below…MATA Festival 2010 Schedule

On Monday, April 19, MATA opens with the first of its 2010 commissions: Matthew Wright’s Totem for Gobi-New York, an interactive audio/video installation. The idea of music ‘at the edge of collapse’ and the dialogue between ‘stillness’ and ‘speed’ are recurrent themes in Wright’s hybrid electronica, underlied by a keen ear for timbre and architectural beats; Totem for Gobi-New York introduces an unpredictable element through Wright’s interaction with Evan Parker.

On April 20, 21, and 22, Wright’s installation in the Gallery Bar will be presented alongside exciting new audio and video pieces by Antye Greie aka AGF, Bjørn Erik Haugen, and Christopher McIntyre. Greie’s Words are Missing “uses voice, beats, drones…to work around the phenomena of silence, speechlessness, deconstructed language or impeded communication.” Haugen’s video, Regress, is the result of a long study into processes of converting images to sound. McIntyre’s Monuments (Crystal) presents aural tableaux inspired by the pioneering ideas of environmental artist Robert Smithson.

In the main space, Tuesday, April 20 brings the adventurous Calder Quartet in the premiere of a new score by MATA 2010 commissionee Nathan Davis (US), plus works by Fabian Svensson (Sweden), Lisa Coons (US), and Daniel Wohl (France/US) – composers whose highly-developed, deeply personal styles blaze new paths between modern and post-modern idioms. The Calder Quartet earned a 2009 ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award in recognition of its innovative programs and its collaborations with artists from minimalist pioneer Terry Riley to party-rocker Andrew W.K.

On Wednesday, April 21, Lisa Moore – described by the New Yorker as “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” – unveils Bad Blood by MATA 2010 commissionee Julian Day (Australia), plus pieces by Sam Adams, Timothy Andres, Missy Mazzoli, and Paul Swartzel. The quirky Ensemble Pamplemousse opens the evening with a group of pieces by David Broome, Natacha Diels, Rama Gottfried, and Andrew Greenwald under the rubric of ‘Symbiosis,’ referring to the potentially unstable relationship between a musical sound and its means of production. Tristan Perich’s wild-and-wooly qsqsqsqsqqqqqqqqq for toy pianos and electronics will be performedbyDavid Broome, Lorna Krier, and the composer.

The festival’s free closing concert, Thursday, April 22, brings together a pair of ensembles attracting international attention. The Argento Chamber Ensemble, praised by The New York Times for its “mix of technical command and urgent advocacy,” plays scores by Michelle Lou and Alexander Sigman. L’Arsenale, a rising force in the European new music scene, offers premieres by Nicola Buso, Lorenzo Tomio, and Stefano Trevisi, providing an intriguing look at the diversifying Italian compositional scene. For the festival’s finale, Argento and L’Arsenale will join forces to give the world premiere of Filippo Perocco’s Veglia.

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